Tales of Catheria

Vicki was surprised by this, and it showed on her facial features but she returned the hug with her small arms until she was let down. She couldn't express it verbally but she was a bit happier and comfortable then before. It made Prier and Poitreene feel good. None of them really knew the girl, just she seemed so quite and sad so it was nice to see her a bit more happy.

The half-vampire went back to her temporary guardian, watching the adults go about their way. Then, she retrieved her notepad and began drawing something down or writing. She had things she wanted to add now.

"So..how far?" Culotte asked Poitreene. "I mean, we don't have any choice but to travel a bit but nice to know."

Poitreene closed her eyes for a moment. "..I can't be sure. I'm sorry, I wish I could be more specific then that. At least ten miles from here, I know that much. When I get closer, I'll be able to give a better definite. Everyone sure they have everything?"

As far as Prier was concerned, she had gotten everything. "Uh, yeah. It's cool here."

Croix shrugged, putting his hands into his pockets. "Fine."

"I made sure I got everything, even some backup stuff..and a map." Culotte added while Alouette merely nodded.

Seeing as everyone seemed accounted for, Poitreene began to lead the group away from the village. She seemed slightly distant at the moment, but it was likely due to concentrating on finding the source.

They had been traveling for several miles, when they would crest a hill, and see smoke billowing in the distance. Lloyd got a bad feeling, and asked Culotte if he could see the map. After a moment of looking it over, he held it out to Raine, embarrassed. "Um... could you point out where we are...?" Raine raised a brow, then shook her head as she took the map to look it over. Shortly, she frowned.

"I see why you wanted to check... judging by the map... that smoke is coming from a small village. Our current heading will take us to a cliff overlooking the village."

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Prier rubbed her nose a bit. "Ugh..I don't know what I'm smelling and not sure I want to know. Something bad is definitely going on there. We should check it out; people might need our help."

"Yes. But we should be cautious just in case. We don't know if anyone may take hostages if its some sort of attack and that would put us in a bad situation." Alouette said, turning to where the village was. "..But we can't just ignore it."

A slight click was heard after Croix had pulled out his gun and checked the safety and the ammo. "If need be, you already have someone who can snipe: Me. I could hang back while you guys go scout and do my own thing; just in case." Six bullets, five elemental rounds. Best to save them. He could use his own mana to do the same effect. He was fine.

The group moved on toward the smoke, and were soon overlooking the small village. Several buildings were burned down, others still burning. Half of the village was still intact, but that was changing. A large group of soldiers in blood red armor were occupying the village, and while some looked human, some most certainly were not. Strange humanoid monsters were included in the ranks. The soldiers were rounding the villagers up in the village center, burning down homes to flush out anyone who was hiding. Lloyd was already moving to intervene, when Raine stopped him. At his disbelieving look, she sighed. "I understand, but wait. We need to get an understanding for what we are dealing with, and why they are doing this. This doesn't look like any native force."

"That's because it isn't..." Valka had spoken up, looking a bit worried. "That armor... their energy... those soldiers are from Vilsche, the Netherworld of Overlord Oboro.... what are they doing here..."

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Prier was in the same mind as Lloyd and was actually going to move as he did but stopped when Raine stopped Lloyd. She still wanted to go down there right away but she held herself as best as she could. Prier was never good at waiting, especially when it came to things like this. The human turned demon had to fight every muscle to keep still for now.

"I don't know what they're doing here. But I'm going to send them back after we see what they're doing." Croix put his gun on the ground, tapping something before it slid out. Two metal legs formed and attached themselves to the ground giving the large gun a stronger purchase on the ground without any recoil at all. He crouched down, reaching into his pocket to pull out a large red bullet before inserting it in place the chamber of the gun; followed by a blue then silver bullet.

Poitreene raised a brow at this, she had never seen the gun like that but let it be. She had bigger worries as she turned back to watch the scene before her with the others.

Once all the villagers were rounded up, what appeared to be the leader of the soldiers started barking orders. The villagers were then seperated into four groups. Men, women, little girls, and little boys. The leader then began inspecting each of them carefully; for what, was unknown. After a moment, he began pacing. "This village has been taken under the rule of Lady Oboro, the future ruler of this land. As such, this village, and everything in it, belongs to her now. The men will join our army, or they will die. The women will serve our army, or they will die. The brats will be put to work until old enough to join or serve, or they will die. Simply put, obey, or you will die. Is that perfectly clear?" The villagers didn't respond, and in an instant, the leader beheaded one of the elder males. Lloyd shifted, but Raine held him back.

"If you run off without a plan, you'll get yourself and others killed! This isn't a group of bandits, you can't just rush in..."

The villagers were panicking, and the Leader silenced them with a sharp cry to shut up. He paused, then turned to one of his soldiers, who was trying to get his attention. After a moment, he nodded. "Alright. Men! All who will accept the honor of fighting for Lady Oboro, step forward, now!" With only a bit of hesitation, most of the men stepped forward. One did not. He simply stood there, glaring at the Leader hatefully. Leader smirked, and then physically forced the man to step forward. "You'll break. They all do. Bind their hands!" The soldiers moved to do was ordered, while Leader whistled, motioning to two soldiers standing near a covered wagon. "Hey, bring them over for initiation!"

Raine, meanwhile, was quickly assessing the situation. "It seems we have time to plan... whatever we end up doing, it will have to be quick, and precise. Croix, you'll need to stay here with that gun of yours, do what you can... the rest of us should split into two groups. One to get the villagers to safety, the other to deal with the soldiers. We need to decide the groups, then make our way to good positioning... then signal Croix to start things off by dealing with their leader..."

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Poitreene thought about it, eyes narrowing. "..I want to deal with those men. They don't feel strong enough to be a remote threat to me, still they could be in a relaxed state." "I'll go help with helping getting the villagers to safety." Alouette said. "I think my powers would serve better use there."

"Um, I'll go with Alouette." Culotte said.

Eclair glanced around, biting her lip. Part of her was just..slightly intimidated but she'd be brave. "I don't think I would be that useful in a straight up fight..so..so I'll go with Culotte."

Prier clinched her fist. "Do you have to ask? I'm going to bust those creeps heads in. I'm with Poitreene."

"You know what I'm doing." Lloyd's gaze was focused on the Leader. Sheen seemed indecisive at first, then decided her speed and abilities would be useful in getting the villagers to safety. Presea opted to fight. Raine, satisfied, opted to help with the villagers. She motioned for everyone to move to closer positions. Valka split off part of her body, which Raine took with her; Valka would be how the signal to act was given.

As they made their way down, two beautiful women were pulled from the covered wagon, on leashes, and dragged over to the crowd. Both women were naked, and were forced onto their knees. Leader spoke up. "Here we are. Lady Oboro, in her generosity, has given a standing order. All new recruits to the army are to be initiated by being serviced by these two whores." The soldiers began to force the men to drop their pants, pushing them toward the naked women, who's hands were bound as well. Valka thought she recognized them, but could tell for sure. It didn't matter, however. Just as the women were having their mouth's forced open by soldiers, Valka blinked, and touched Croix's arm lightly.

"Raine is giving the signal early, we have to stop this..."

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Croix didn't need to be told twice, he aimed at the soldiers and began firing in rapid short burst. Head shots or through the heart whenever was close enough and appropriate. Thanks to his demon eyesight he could see much further to aim without really needing a scope in the first place. The first shots however were aimed at the leader. The armor looked pretty tough but his bullets were made to tear through tough natural armor so it should hopefully do the trick.

He assumed the others would, or were going to react once the first few shots actually hit.

The soldiers that Croix had fired at were brought down immediately. The Leader, however, had suddenly raised his shield, the bullets actually being stopped by it. The slits in his helm began to glow red, just before Lloyd and Presea burst into the middle of his soldiers, taking out several with the element of surprise. As they recovered, Lloyd leapt clear, and brought both blades down on Leader, who raised his longsword to block, while Presea went wild within the group of soldiers.

At the same time, Sheena and Raine were moving quickly. Sheena was quickly moving villagers out of the fray, her seals being used to defend them and keep soldiers at bay, while Raine did the same with her spells.

Meanwhile, several soldiers, under their Leader's sudden orders, were advancing up onto the cliff to reach Croix. Valka, however, smiled at him. "Don't worry about them, keep doing what you're doing. I can handle this!"

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Poiteene didn't wait for the leader to recover and get a offense going as she channeled her divine energy through her body. Her formed glowed a faint silver as she released it; the white energy turning into the shape of wings. It was launched right towards their center mass.

"Light Symphony!"

In the mean time, Prier had kicked a baton towards them, covered in a demonic red hue of energy as she circled around darting quickly.

* *

Croix heard her but didn't answer, focusing back on what he needed to be done. While the leader was his prime target, he wouldn't waste the chance to take out a few of the stragglers around. The less enemies they had to deal with was the better.

The Leader let out an angry war cry, and threw Lloyd from himself with his sword as he moved his shield up. Surprisingly, not only did it block Poitreene's attack, it seemed to absorb it, while he deflected Prier's baton with his sword. Then he raised his large sword up high, bringing it down sharply.

As Lloyd landed after being flung back, he rolled to his feet, only for a fissure to form in the ground from the downswing of the sword. Lloyd leapt clear, and Presea nearly went down, along with several of the soldiers. Lloyd shot toward Leader, circling around to get behind him as he leapt into the air for Rising Falcon, only for his strike to be blocked by that damned shield. "Pitiful... you call yourself a swordsman?" He shoved Lloyd back, then focused on him. Lloyd quickly found himself fighting a much bigger and stronger foe. He seemed to still have a speed advantage, however; he just needed to capitalize and act! More soldiers were rushing in, and shockingly, seemingly rising from the dead, moving to swarm Poitreene and the others. Leader wanted to focus on Lloyd, seeming offended by him.

~~~~~

The soldiers advancing on Croix's position were caught off guard when a mass of a blue, viscous liquid rose up and engulfed two of them, bringing them to the ground. The soldier's moved to attack, but were afraid they'd hit their own men, and soon the captured men stopped struggling as they suffocated. The blue mass rose again, and the soldiers struck with their swords, which simply got stuck. They barely managed a scream as they two were engulfed.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Poitreene couldn't fully go all out without collateral damage and there was too many innocent people and allies to completely let loose. Instead, she had to tone it down and engage the remaining men who charged in, occasionally some dropping from some unseen force with blood spurting from their head or necks thanks to Croix's well placed shots.

Scowling, Prier didn't relent in her attacks but had to ward off a few of the enemies. She ducked under a sword swing, stepping in close so they couldn't use it as she rose up with a vicious uppercut.

* * That's one way.

Croix decided to lend Lloyd some cover fire, charging a bit of mana through his gun and fired at the leader's knee cap this time. The bullet was in shape of a blue sphere, intending to freeze or slow down their leg movements.

Lloyd was struggling, but felt confident that he could hold his own until he got an opening. Then a blue sphere slammed into his opponent's knee... and seemed to evaporate. The kinetic force made Leader stumble, but the magical properties seemed to have been nullified. Lloyd shot forward, and suddenly, Leader was on the defensive. Being put off balance by the shot had given Lloyd a chance to get on the offensive, and his speed with his dual blades was making Leader backpedal.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Prier circled around another demon, moving quickly to get in their vunerable areas. One thing she had learned while fighting people with long swords; they were dangerous to be sure but they weren't meant to be in close quaters. So Prier took advantage of this, allowing a sword swing and stepping in, either dodging or blocking with her Baton. A few months ago or so, and she'd be dead without the demon blood enhancing her.

Lloyd was grinning. He had his opponent on the retreat, his speed helping him greatly, and he noticed the other soldiers starting to drop. They were winning this battle, slowly. Even better, the villagers were mostly to safety now. Unfortunately, his opponent noticed this as well. He'd soon have them all on him. That was not a good idea, so he'd need to thin the herd; starting with the 'pathetic swordsman'. He'd been allowing himself to stay on defense, to gauge the young man. He was strong, yes. He was fast. But his skill was to be desired. Lloyd brought his blades around for another strike, when Leader's shield flashed through his vision, slamming into his blades. His strike was rebounded, sending him staggering, and his guard wide open.

Pain. Lloyd had felt a great deal of pain in his travels. Thought he'd died before. Almost did once or twice. Most recently when he'd taken that blow while defending that village. This, however... it was surreal for him. Seeing the large, cruel looking blade moving in, piercing his chest. He could only watch in a strange fascination and horror as he was completely run through. Leader then brought his foot up and, placing it on Lloyd's chest, booted him backwards off the blade, shredding his insides in the process, and onto the ground.

Lloyd stared up at Leader, his eyes wide and vision blurring as blood pooled rapidly beneath him, soaking into the ground. He could faintly hear people screaming his name. Saw Presea rush in, only to get backhanded across the face and sent flying into a wall. He caught SHeena's kick and slammed her once, twice into the ground. She didn't move. Lloyd tried to force his body to act, to protect his friends, even as he saw the familiar Ray spell glance off of Leader's shield. Lloyd lifted his hand, trying to reach for the nearest blade he'd dropped, only for Leader's booted foot to come down on his arm, crushing it. Lloyd didn't have the breath to scream, but the added pain along with blood loss was more than enough to send him into unconciousness.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Prier and Alouette had shouted at the same time, but they didn't wait for their opponent to move and went to attack with a renewed vegeance. Prier's face was twisted into what couldn't be described as anything but a feral snarl. A blazing red aura was around her as she furiously attacked the person who had severely wounded Lloyd.

The reaction from Poitreene was similar. The Goddesses' eyes started glowing a eerie silver color and without a word savagely attacked her opponent, enraged beyond rational thought at the moment. Like Prier, her power had increased drastically the moment Lloyd had dropped. Alouette rushed over to the prone Lloyd while the others kept him busy.

A large column of fire was also launched at the leader from Culotte who had poured a lot more magical power then normal for his attack, purely focused on bring them down.

* *

Croix stood there, shocked for a moment as it quickly set in what had just happened.

..You're not just going to let them get away with it, are you?

If not for Croix being in such a high emotional state, he would have paid the voice more mind thinking it nothing more then his subconcious. His fist clinched and dark energy began to rise within him. Not only that but it was clearly felt for those with sensing powers. A loud sound like a heart beat thudded in his ears, blocking out all the noise as the power built, his body feeling strangely hot but he ignored it. All he could focus on was the enemy before him.

Black electricity crackled a bit around his form as the resulting energy began to reach a climax before it compressed down on his person, temporary shrouding his form in a dark flash. When it died down, Croix had changed a bit. He floated once inch above the ground, his hand were like claws and his facial features were sharper then normal. The same electricity came around him every once in a while. "..........."

Croix vanished from his spot as if he teleported, appearing in the air above the leader, his clawed outstreched as the same dark energy built. It was compressed into a orb and tossed at the demon in attempt to destroy them.

Leader... had miscalculated, he found. This group... they were all clearly attached to the young man, but instead of being demoralized by what happened, they were enraged. On one hand, this gave him an advantage; they were angry, and sure to be sloppy and make mistakes. However, they were all on him at once, and quite powerful. The magical attacks, he could ignore, mostly. The force of them hitting him, would still have an effect. But their ferocious attacks were overwhelming. It took everything he'd ever learned about swordplay, every ounce of strength and reflex, to keep them at bay. And they were going to quickly wear him down.

He'd dealt with three of them so far, and the weird slime woman and blue-haired half-elf were up on the cliff still, while the younger blonde was looking after the young swordsman. The rest were intent on killing him. He noted the two mages; not really a threat at this point, in his mind. The silver-haired woman, however... the look on her face was almost terrifying, even to him. Still, he fought on. A block here, parry there, all the while being driven back. And as the fight continued, as his magically resistant armor began to crack, his strength began to give... he knew he would lose. He knew that he had roused a beast he could not defeat....

...But he would not go down quietly. Oh, no. He would have the last laugh. Using quick maneuvering to grab Prier and throw her between himself, and Croix and Poitreene, he bought himself a split second of time before they were on him. And so he moved. In the next instant, he was next to Raine, his shield smashing through her hastily raised barrier spell and crushing her into the ground. She was resilient though, so would be relatively okay, but she was out cold.

With a shift of his stance and twisting of his muscles, a great deal of his armor broke off, exposing his marble white skin, with black tattoo's covering almost every inch. This loss of weight gave him extra speed, to move before his opponents could catch him, rolling out of the way as he flung his shield into Culotte before the young man could react, smashing him into the wall of the cliff. Now unburdened by it's weight, he could make his final move. He'd dealt with the heavy magic users. Those he knew could heal the young swordsman; except one. The blonde watching over him. He knew that the swordsman's injuries, while severe, were survivable if magical healing was quickly applied. He needed to prevent this. So with the last of his strength and borrowed time, he shot toward Alouette and Lloyd, from behind Alouette.

He could feel his sword strike true, but what he saw was shocking. The blue-haired half-elf... how? How had she gotten there so fast? ...It didn't matter. She'd thrown herself between him and his target foolishly. He had to smile under his helmet. Three for the price of one. His long blade had run the young half-elf through, buried in her stomach. But it had also pierced through the blond; into her back, and out the other side, just under her right breast. The best part, however, was that he had buried his blade to the hilt, and the last several inches of steel had pierced the swordsman's gut.

Three for the price of one. Not a bad way to go out, taking this much from them. He could feel the powerful energies of Croix, Prier, and Poitreene bearing down on him. He would be dead soon. But he'd served Lady Oboro faithfully. He was sure she'd be pleased with his work. That's all that mattered.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Croix let out what could only be described as a roar, the black energy flaring around him as he shot forward along with a incredibly enraged Prier and Poitreene. The Goddess went behind the leader, trapping his arms behind his back and began pulling as Croix suddenly was there, claws gripping the man's throat. Then from there he began pulling.

And laughing.

That wasn't really like Croix but no one at the moment was focused on that. Croix continued to pull until he felt something give away as their head was detached from his shoulders while Poitreene had removed their arms. Croix then violently kicked the body away to the side, holding up a hand which discharged black energy to turn the corpse to ash before spitting on it.

Prier couldn't get a good angle in, and had the sense to check on Alouette and Nerine quickly to get the sword out of them before it got worse. Eclair shakily went over, tears in her eyes. She had been so useless...

That second stab had roused Lloyd from unconsciousness, and what he saw hurt far worse than his wounds. Looking up to see Alouette hunched over him, impaled on a blade, and Nerine recieving the same in trying to protect them... Raine on the ground nearby, her hair matted with blood. Culotte, Presea, Sheena, all down. He felt this was his fault. His fault for not being strong enough. Lloyd wasn't one to cry much, but here, he couldn't help it. It didn't help that, despite how strong he usually was... he was afraid to die, and that fear gripped him now. This, added with his fear over the conditions of his friends, nearly broke him.

He didn't notice Raine shakily raising her head, and reaching toward him before collapsing back to the ground. He didn't notice how Poitreene and Croix dealt with their opponent. He did notice Prier arriving, and was glad that she was okay, and would probably be able to make sure the others were alright.

He did not notice that Nerine's eyes were starting to glow very faintly, or that the air around the village seemed to be becoming thick with mana.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Alouette was in agonizing pain at the moment, unable to really think or say anything as she withered on the ground. She wanted nothing more then to pass out but the pain wouldn't let her.

Croix watched the ashes that had once been a living being spitefully before going to check on Alouette as did Poitreene. "..Can you heal them?" He asked, his voice having a slight almost eerie echo to it. He hadn't transformed back to his normal state just yet. The form wasn't draining on him at all, and if anything felt completely natural. "I can." Poitreene crouched down in front of the gravely injured, Lloyd and Alouette.

Lloyd was watching Poitreene with blurry vision, and grinned weakly. "Good... you're okay... too... you can... you can heal Alouette.... Raine... you can... heal them, right?" Valka hit the ground not too far from them, rushing over after her body reformed. She looked over Lloyd, and winced heavily. She met Lloyd's gaze, and he motioned to Raine and the others. After a pause, she nodded moving over to them. Poitreene had Alouette and Nerine covered, she was sure... Lloyd, however...

Nerine started to slowly sit up, clutching her stomach. After a moment, her eyes briefly flashed, before she looked around in confusion. She was wondering where the comforting voice in her head had gone.... and why ther was a steadily growing amount of mana in the air.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

Poitreene felt a strange twisting in her stomach, she could heal them yes but she didn't think she could heal Lloyd. She began to work on Alouette and Nerine, quitely working. Croix had stopped floating one inch off the ground but otherwise still seemed to be in that form, starring off into space in some random direction before going to where Presea was, and gently picking her up to set her somewhere more comfortable. Prier not wanting to sit went to get Raine and her brother who had passed out, doing the same. Followed by Sheena. "Okay Poitreene, its time to heal Lloyd." Prier said, looking at her expectantly who was oddly avoiding eye contact.

It wasn't anyway Poitreene's fault, but Prier was scared, and not in the best emotional state so she didn't respond exactly rationally. "Your a Goddess! Raine can bring back the dead, and you can't?! You're suppose to be divine! You can even split worlds apart and you can't-" "Prier, enough. There's nothing she can do. Drop it..." It was the only thing Croix said, his face was hard to read.

Lloyd weakly squeezed Prier's hand. "...Sorry... I screwed up this time... guess I should have realized that... just cause I beat Kratos one on one.... doesn't make me the best swordsman... the... the others are going to be alright.... right?" He looked scared for a moment. Before Prier could answer, however, Nerine suddenly gasped, her eyes glowing brightly as what looked like a door was forming in the air.

_________________"There is no such thing as 'Coincidence'. Only 'Inevitability'." ~ Yuuko Ichihara

"O-of course, and y-you're going to be okay too." Prier was trying to keep her voice steady and calm even if on the inside she felt like someone was grinding her internal organs into a powder. She didn't even notice the door forming, too wrapped up in Lloyd's condition.